Where Children Sleep

A photo tour of children & their bedrooms from around the world. Two examples:

Whoopsies

California welfare recipients withdrew $1.8 million at casinos over 8 months, using their state-issued debit cards. The losers who did this will undoubtedly fuel the conservatives who bemoan welfare as handouts. First, this occurrence would certainly seem like a valid argument against a debit card method of welfare. Second, and more importantly, these withdrawals accounted for about 1% of the total withdrawals. That's a lot--no doubt--but whatever system you use, you'll have losers. A more conservative approach will increase the number of deserving, hardworking families who can't get the brief leg-up they need. A more liberal approach will increase the number of wasteful leeches who really just want a handout. I would argue that a 1% waste-rate is better than shoving deserving families into further poverty. (Again, however, the government should have been aware that these debit cards were being used for gambling before now!)

South Carolina Dynasty of Stupidity

The Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, Andre Bauer, forgot what decade / century he was in and espoused a eugenical view of charity and social support. The boiled down version is that we shouldn't give poor people things like, say, food, because they get horny and reproduce. Let's go to the actual words:

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better." Greenville News via Wonkette

Bauer goes on to say, "You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks. It's there, period." That is several shades of special. He clearly missed the correlation / causation lecture in college. I recommend that SC make itself look better by lowering test scores around the country by giving kids free food. That will be a foolproof plan.